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In this April 26, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a campaign stop on at Allen University in Columbia, S.C.

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker is proposing that all gun owners be licensed by the federal government, a process that would include an interview and safety training.

National licensing is one of more than a dozen specific proposals in a sweeping gun control agenda the U.S. senator from New Jersey released on Monday. It's his second policy rollout in three weeks as he tries to break through the crowded Democratic primary field.

While current gun owners and first-time buyers would be subject to the federal license requirement, a transition period would allow current owners to come into compliance, the Booker campaign said.

No such national gun license program currently exists. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted some form of licensing or permit rules before people can buy guns, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Who’s Running for President in 2020?

The race for the 2020 presidential election is underway, and the field of Democratic candidates is already packed and still growing. Those who have filed paperwork or announced presidential bids include a vice president, senators, House members and, so far, at least two mayors. As for the GOP, a single Republican has announced his bid to challenge President Donald Trump for the party nomination: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who ran for vice president (and lost) in 2016 on the Libertarian party ticket.

"We must step up and deal with something that is crushing communities, destroying lives and really just tearing apart families," Booker said in an interview on CBS' "CBS This Morning."

Booker's gun control agenda includes universal background checks for gun buyers; the reinstitution of a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity firearm magazines; and the modernization of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The plan would face a steep climb to winning approval from a Democratic House and would face even stiffer resistance in a Republican-controlled Senate, where less-sweeping gun control measures have failed in recent years.

Billboard in Back Bay Advocates Stricter Gun Control

Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin Oliver was shot dead inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas on Valentine's Day, unveiled the new billboard in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood near Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. Oliver designed the 90-foot long billboard featuring an image of the 17-year-old to advocate for stricter gun control.

(Published Friday, Nov. 2, 2018)

President Donald Trump has said the constitutional right to bear arms is "under assault." Trump, a Republican, spoke at the NRA's annual convention last month, vowing to fight for gun rights and imploring NRA members to rally behind his reelection bid.

Booker, who launched his presidential campaign in February, has struggled to rise from the low single digits in polls of the 21-candidate Democratic primary field, though he recently secured the 65,000 donors necessary to meet both qualifications for participation in next month's first debate.